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The title is from a t-shirt I found in a gift shop in Baie-Saint-Paul yesterday, on our day out of town. My boyfriend and I are still laughing at it today because it is so funny to think Baie-Saint-Paul could measure up to these enormous cities, with its 7000 of population.

However, Baie-Saint-Paul sure has its own charms, and I'd choose it over bigger cities anytime. Besides, it should be known all over the world, after all this is where Cirque du Soleil was born back in the 1980s.

Anyway, we went there yesterday for a change of scenery, only one hour and a half from Quebec-city, and for a breath of fresh air. As its name indicates, Baie-Saint-Paul is a small town built in a little bay in the St.Lawrence River. It is also one of the craftiest and most artistic towns I know in the Province. The number of art galleries and craft shops is impressive. This is the perfect rendez-vous for landscapes painters, and you may understand why from the few pictures below that I took during the day.

Above is a large view on the bay, with the small beach, the quay and Rivière du Gouffre.
Below is a closer look at the town and its rural setting.

Only a few minutes east of Baie-Saint-Paul we took the ferry to cross over to Isle-aux-Coudres, a small island in the St.Lawrence that makes about 30 km in circumference. We rented a "Junior", one of those funny two-place bicycles and slowly pedaled our way along the south shore road, enjoying the beautiful "seashore" landscape and the characteristic smell. We could almost believe we were by the sea, although this is just the St.Lawrence River and we can see the other shore in the distance. The tide was at its lowest when we were there, which is why you can barely see the water on the pictures, but the feeling was there all the same.


I took great interest in the wild flowers growing on the shore, like thousands of common rose bushes with their sweet smell (above) and other colorful flowers (below).

Look how patient Patrick and Crusty were while I hopped down the bicycle and on again to take one picture here and another one just a hundred yards away! I loved how some people used heavy boat cables to fence their properties,

or an old bicycle frame as a decorative accent in their garden.

I fell in love with the little stone house below and its neatly arranged flowers. It is a very small house and it made me think of a doll-house. Besides, I have a thing for stone walls. My parents have the most amazing one (of which I should definitely take a few pictures next time I go there).


After our tour on Isle-aux-Coudres, we made it back to Baie-Saint-Paul and went down to the beach. It really is just a long and narrow patch of sand on one side of the bay, but it always feels good to walk barefoot in the sand, even though the water was so far off with the tide being so low.

We had originally planned to stay there for a couple of days, but with rain in the forecast, we headed back home on the same day. Now trying to find another spot not too far from town where we could be heading in the following days, before Patrick's vacation is over.

See you soon,
Sylvie